


When Black Met Potter

by ErinNovelist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Marauders, Marauders' Era, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2015-08-07
Packaged: 2018-04-13 13:01:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4523088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinNovelist/pseuds/ErinNovelist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At nineteen, they are both ready for war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Black Met Potter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CaptainOzone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainOzone/gifts).



James Potter is eleven when he gets his Hogwarts letter, and his mother gives him an extra piece of pie at dinner to celebrate while his father clamps him proudly on the back. Sirius Black is on the verge of twelve when he gets his, and his mother quips that “at least he’s not a Squib” while his father takes another long swig of his White Rat Whiskey. Both were born into privileged lives with ginormous mansions and important families, but neither one of them can wait to leave. When you’re a lonely, little boy who has everything, it’s really quite simple to realize how little you have.

James is eleven and two-fifths when he first boards the Hogwarts Express, sent off with a bright smile and wide eyes. Sirius Black is twelve and trudges along the aisle, looking for an open compartment, after his older cousin Bellatrix chased him out of hers. Both stumble upon the last one on the car, exchanging pleasantries and names. James smirks with a haughty laugh as “Black” tumbles from Sirius’s mouth, and Sirius’s lips tighten when “Potter” falls from James’s. James reckons he might have met his arch-enemy, and Sirius already knows he has.

James is twelve when he finds Sirius crying in the corridor near the peach portrait, right around the corner from the Hufflepuff common room, a crumpled letter clasped between his shaking hands. Sirius is twelve and a half, full of fury at Walburga’s cutting words, and had ran off to the place where his tears couldn’t be shamed (because house elves are very considerate creatures), but he didn’t quite make it to the kitchens. James sits down beside him and begins to ramble on endlessly, trying to make the other boy laugh, and Sirius silently thanks whoever is listening for giving him a friend.

Both are thirteen and traipse around Hogwarts with bright eyes and wide smiles. Their friends, Remus and Peter, walk beside them without a care in the world, and Professor Dumbledore wonders if the Founding Four were ever quite as close as the Marauders have come to be. James and Sirius spend too much time playing pranks on poor Severus Snape, finding joy in the taunting and teasing of the boyhood games, but they don’t know the repercussions their actions will someday have. Their jokes are known throughout the castle; McGonagall confiscates their notes on a regular basis. Sirius is known for his skill with a beater bat, and Professor Spinster swears that James is the best Chaser they’ve had since Montagu five years ago. Sirius falls asleep on James’s bed with well-worn books on lycanthropy tucked under his head because he has a _bloody theory god damn it_. James nods off at the foot of Sirius’s bed with _Quidditch Through the Ages_ draped across his chest. It’s nice to be in a safe place and accepted by people who will never hurt you. Both are the happiest they’ve ever been.

Sirius is fifteen when he chokes on a mandrake leaf during the process to become an animagus. James saves him. James is fourteen when he manages the first transformation of his animagus form and nearly takes Peter’s eye out when a stag unexpectedly pops into existence in the middle of their dorm room. Sirius vows to call him “Prongs” for the rest of his life. Both swear this is only the beginning of a beautiful, life-long friendship.

Sirius is sixteen when he runs away from home and shows up on James’s front porch, shivering in the rain with bruises blossoming across his face, and of course, the Potters welcome him into their abode. James is fifteen when he swears he will marry the fiery redhead, Lily Evans, and Sirius never doubts it. It’s just one more person that will eventually join the make-shift family that the Marauders have made for themselves. Both can see the future they crave: a close-knit family consisting of two purebloods, a half-blood, a werewolf, and a Muggleborn (even if one of them hates all the others’ guts right now). At sixteen, blood means nothing to them, but family means everything.

At seventeen, both are graduating. James can’t let go of Lily’s hand, and Sirius keeps a tight arm around both Remus and Peter. A war is looming overhead, but for one joyous moment, all of them are together. James is eighteen and an orphan, finding comfort in Lily’s warm embrace and Peter’s ill-timed jokes. Sirius is nineteen and attends the funeral for James’s (his) parents, fallen during the fight against some pompous ass named Voldemort. Neither smile. Both know that their childhood is over, and the future is rearing its ugly, dark head.

They are nineteen and at war. James has defied Voldemort twice and laughs in Death Eaters’ faces. Sirius drives a flying motorcycle and is a key member in the Order. When the War is over, James dreams of starting a family, and Sirius dreams of joining the Aurors under Alastor Moody. James is a father at twenty. Sirius is a godfather at twenty. Both of them are running as the world falls apart around them, bursting into green-tinting flames whenever they turn a corner. Amidst the chaos and death, though, some beauty can be found. Both vow to dedicate their lives to this war, if only so that little Harry James can grow up in a world without it.

James is twenty-one and has defied Voldemort for the final time. After an Order meeting, Dumbledore pulls him and Lily aside, and a wailing Harry is dumped into Sirius’s waiting arms. Sirius is twenty-one when James asks him through pale lips, stretched thin with worry, how much he’d be willing to give for his friends. Sirius tells him everything, and James believes him.

They are twenty-one, and they have nothing more to give. James is a man hell-bent on protecting everything that matters to him, and Sirius feels like a little boy running scared. _You’re the only person I trust_ , James says. _You’re the only person I want_ , James thinks. _It’s too easy_ , Sirius says. _It’s too much_ , Sirius thinks. In the end, they choose Peter because James trusts him too, and Sirius knows it’s the last person the Death Eaters will suspect. Peter is the last person they would’ve suspected too.

James never makes it to twenty-two. Sirius doesn’t see the light of day until he’s thirty-four.

 


End file.
